1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a receiver-integrated refrigerant condenser for use in a refrigerating cycle. More particularly, the present invention relates to a receiver-integrated refrigerant condenser which can suitably be applied to an automotive air conditioner in which the quantity of the circulating refrigerant greatly varies.
2. Related Art
In the refrigerating cycle of conventional automotive air conditioners, a receiver and a condenser are separately and independently disposed. Therefore, it is difficult to reduce the cost by reducing the number of parts and components. Furthermore, as the receiver and the condenser need the respective installation spaces, the requirement of reducing the installation space can not be fulfilled. To solve these problems with the conventional automotive air conditioners, U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,683 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2-267478 disclose that a gas-liquid refrigerant separation chamber functioning as a receiver is integrally formed at the header part on the outlet side of the condenser.
In the composition of the above examples, however, the widthwise dimension in the horizontal direction of the header part on the outlet side of the condenser is enlarged by integrally providing the gas-liquid separation chamber at the header part on the outlet side thereof.
Further in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2-267478, the gas-liquid refrigerant separation chamber functioning as the receiver has an outlet opening upwards and the outlet connects an outlet pipe communicating with an evaporator. Therefore, the outlet pipe around the outlet of the gas-liquid refrigerant separation chamber occupies a further space between the header tank and the gas-liquid refrigerant separation chamber.
As a result, in installing each of the above condensers in an extremely narrow engine room of a vehicle, the header part and the gas-liquid refrigerant separation chamber including the outlet pipe may interfere with the vehicle body or other devices, causing difficulties to the installation.
In order to install the condenser in a limited space within the engine room, however, the widthwise dimension of the core for heat exchanging between the refrigerant in the condenser and the fresh air has to be reduced in some cases because of the enlarged width of the gas-liquid separation chamber. As a result, a problem may be caused that the performance of the condenser falls.